How to Coach Yourself

by: David Wood

Some people are not in a position to work with a coach right now. Some are stretched financially, while some are still using the “lone ranger” method. Other people might be uncertain about trying something new.

So here is a brief, simple process I often use with clients that you can apply to you own situation i.e. coach yourself! And at the end of the article I will mention how you can go even further than this using a professional coach.

STEP 1) Clarify your goal

Some of us are not moving forward simply because we have not set a goal that inspires us! Make it specific e.g. 20% increase in income by January 1. And you can stretch yourself, but keep it realistic. If you’re blocked, schedule creative time to play with ideas. Dream, cry, challenge. Ask someone. Create it! Don’t get hung up on the ‘right’ goal, just pick something exciting that takes your fancy – then trust yourself, and move to Step 2).

STEP 2) Plan

What overall strategy(s) will you use? For example, to lose weight, will your strategy be dietary, exercise based, or a combination? To increase income will you increase your knowledge, switch employers, network, or improve performance. For this stage you will also set your milestones to achieve along the way, with deadlines attached (say every 3-6 months). Also list the tasks to achieve along the way in between milestones.

STEP 3) Action

Once you have the overall plan in place, it’s time to get down to specific action. You might like to list the action steps you will take in the next 7 days, or the next 30. When you have completed these actions, it’s time to evaluate, celebrate, and write the next list of action steps.

STEP 4) Structure

Having an idea, or desire is one thing. But many of these do not get achieved. This is probably one reason you are reading this article – because there is something in your life you would like to achieve or change, but it hasn’t happened yet. Change rarely occurs without a “structure” in place to support you. For example, if you want to be a public speaker, surround yourself with speakers. Talk a friend into doing your goal with you. Ask someone to check in on you once a fortnight to ask how you’re going. Set constant diary reminders for the next month, and/or encouraging visual displays on the wall. Announcing your commitment to the world (all your friends) is also a great structure.

And if you’re really serious about your goal, it’s hard to find a more powerful structure than hiring a coach. Does speaking to someone once a week, and taking time out each week to focus on what’s important to you, sound like it might make a difference? You bet!

Enjoy,

David Wood

David Wood is a Professional Life Coach, and author of the powerful Free Download: ’50 Life Coaching Questions to Take Control of Your Life and Help Your Clients’. He helps coaches, consultants, speakers and trainers to build their businesses via his popular ebook: “10 Super Coaches Share Their Secrets” and his audio ebook: “Getting Your First 50 Clients”.

“David Wood is a personal and business coach, and an original founder of the International Coach Academy – a global coach training school”

Source

Robert Recommends...

• The Added Advantage: Body Language


• To Dream of a Better World


• Master Your Finances


• “The Secret” of Personal Change


• Change The World By Changing Yourself


• Create a Vision Board for Your Goals

The post How to Coach Yourself appeared first on Robert JR Graham.

The Added Advantage: Body Language

by: Kathy Gates, Professional Life Coach

Have you ever walked by someone’s office (or even in the grocery store) and noticed them just standing there smiling? They are practicing the ‘added advantage’ of body language to not only project a better image in the world, but to feel better and relieve stress for themselves.

Body language 101 is ‘sit up, look the other person in the eye, and smile’. We all learned it as children, and fine tune it to meet prospective employers, or prospective spouses and friends.

But let’s look at the added advantage of using these body language basics to help you feel happier and less stressed throughout your week:

(1) Sit up: The best way to exercise control over your present body language is to get up and walk around a bit. This is actually a bit of a cheat, because what getting up and moving around does is make you take a deeper breath. During stress, we have a habit of beginning to take shallow breaths, and that deprives our bodies of the oxygen it needs, and makes the brain muscles constrict and work harder.

When you consciously sit up – or better– stand up, moving your body around helps the blood to flow again. It gives your legs and backside a rest, as well as decompresses your lungs to help give the oxygen to your brain and body. It will return the color to your face, and help ease the strain on your shoulders.

(2) Look the person in the eye: Normally, you will find that you’re overwhelmed and stressed because you’re either spending too much mind-time in the past (“I haven’t done that yet”), or too much time in the future (“I’ll never get this finished on time”). And all that’s good for is a slumping posture and a scowl on your face.

Instead, use this advantage of body language to pull yourself back to the present moment. When yo

u feel yourself getting uptight and miserable, just for a minute, wiggle your toes, look at the color of your shoes, take a whiff of the air (coffee?), listen to the sounds around you. It’s looking yourself in the eye. Getting present with yourself. When you get yourself back to the present, then you can consciously and purposefully “choose your attitude”.

(3) Smile: Help along your body language by thinking of something that makes you smile. Remember the 70’s pop-psychology idea of going to your “happy place”? Have that happy place in reserve, or think about a funny thing you or a friend did, or even a funny scene from a movie. Smile in your mind, or if appropriate, on the outside as well.

Body language has always been used to send a signal to other people, but now you can use your body language to send a signal to your own brain, and take advantage of feeling better any time of the day.

Source

Related articles

• How Body Language Can Make or Break Your Interview


• Body Language At Work


• What you don’t know about body language — but should


• The Language of Body Language


• Body language I


• 7 Surprising Truths about Body Language


• The Secret to Mastering Your Body Language


• Inferring, Body Language, and Shakespeare

Robert Recommends...

• The Importance Of Touch


• What Does Your Body Language Say?


• Friends And Influence


• A Body Language Primer


• The Language of the Soul


• Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP)

The post The Added Advantage: Body Language appeared first on Robert JR Graham.

How to Coach Yourself

by: David Wood

Some people are not in a position to work with a coach right now. Some are stretched financially, while some are still using the “lone ranger” method. Other people might be uncertain about trying something new.

So here is a brief, simple process I often use with clients that you can apply to you own situation i.e. coach yourself! And at the end of the article I will mention how you can go even further than this using a professional coach.

STEP 1) Clarify your goal

Some of us are not moving forward simply because we have not set a goal that inspires us! Make it specific e.g. 20% increase in income by January 1. And you can stretch yourself, but keep it realistic. If you’re blocked, schedule creative time to play with ideas. Dream, cry, challenge. Ask someone. Create it! Don’t get hung up on the ‘right’ goal, just pick something exciting that takes your fancy – then trust yourself, and move to Step 2).

STEP 2) Plan

What overall strategy(s) will you use? For example, to lose weight, will your strategy be dietary, exercise based, or a combination? To increase income will you increase your knowledge, switch employers, network, or improve performance. For this stage you will also set your milestones to achieve along the way, with deadlines attached (say every 3-6 months). Also list the tasks to achieve along the way in between milestones.

STEP 3) Action

Once you have the overall plan in place, it’s time to get down to specific action. You might like to list the action steps you will take in the next 7 days, or the next 30. When you have completed these actions, it’s time to evaluate, celebrate, and write the next list of action steps.

STEP 4) Structure

Having an idea, or desire is one thing. But many of these do not get achieved. This is probably one reason you are reading this article – because there is something in your life you would like to achieve or change, but it hasn’t happened yet. Change rarely occurs without a “structure” in place to support you. For example, if you want to be a public speaker, surround yourself with speakers. Talk a friend into doing your goal with you. Ask someone to check in on you once a fortnight to ask how you’re going. Set constant diary reminders for the next month, and/or encouraging visual displays on the wall. Announcing your commitment to the world (all your friends) is also a great structure.

And if you’re really serious about your goal, it’s hard to find a more powerful structure than hiring a coach. Does speaking to someone once a week, and taking time out each week to focus on what’s important to you, sound like it might make a difference? You bet!

Enjoy,

David Wood

David Wood is a Professional Life Coach, and author of the powerful Free Download: ’50 Life Coaching Questions to Take Control of Your Life and Help Your Clients’. He helps coaches, consultants, speakers and trainers to build their businesses via his popular ebook: “10 Super Coaches Share Their Secrets” and his audio ebook: “Getting Your First 50 Clients”.

“David Wood is a personal and business coach, and an original founder of the International Coach Academy – a global coach training school”

Source

Robert Recommends...

• The Added Advantage: Body Language


• To Dream of a Better World


• Master Your Finances


• “The Secret” of Personal Change


• Change The World By Changing Yourself


• Create a Vision Board for Your Goals

The post How to Coach Yourself appeared first on Robert JR Graham.

How to Coach Yourself

by: David Wood

Some people are not in a position to work with a coach right now. Some are stretched financially, while some are still using the “lone ranger” method. Other people might be uncertain about trying something new.

So here is a brief, simple process I often use with clients that you can apply to you own situation i.e. coach yourself! And at the end of the article I will mention how you can go even further than this using a professional coach.

STEP 1) Clarify your goal

Some of us are not moving forward simply because we have not set a goal that inspires us! Make it specific e.g. 20% increase in income by January 1. And you can stretch yourself, but keep it realistic. If you’re blocked, schedule creative time to play with ideas. Dream, cry, challenge. Ask someone. Create it! Don’t get hung up on the ‘right’ goal, just pick something exciting that takes your fancy – then trust yourself, and move to Step 2).

STEP 2) Plan

What overall strategy(s) will you use? For example, to lose weight, will your strategy be dietary, exercise based, or a combination? To increase income will you increase your knowledge, switch employers, network, or improve performance. For this stage you will also set your milestones to achieve along the way, with deadlines attached (say every 3-6 months). Also list the tasks to achieve along the way in between milestones.

STEP 3) Action

Once you have the overall plan in place, it’s time to get down to specific action. You might like to list the action steps you will take in the next 7 days, or the next 30. When you have completed these actions, it’s time to evaluate, celebrate, and write the next list of action steps.

STEP 4) Structure

Having an idea, or desire is one thing. But many of these do not get achieved. This is probably one reason you are reading this article – because there is something in your life you would like to achieve or change, but it hasn’t happened yet. Change rarely occurs without a “structure” in place to support you. For example, if you want to be a public speaker, surround yourself with speakers. Talk a friend into doing your goal with you. Ask someone to check in on you once a fortnight to ask how you’re going. Set constant diary reminders for the next month, and/or encouraging visual displays on the wall. Announcing your commitment to the world (all your friends) is also a great structure.

And if you’re really serious about your goal, it’s hard to find a more powerful structure than hiring a coach. Does speaking to someone once a week, and taking time out each week to focus on what’s important to you, sound like it might make a difference? You bet!

Enjoy,

David Wood

David Wood is a Professional Life Coach, and author of the powerful Free Download: ’50 Life Coaching Questions to Take Control of Your Life and Help Your Clients’. He helps coaches, consultants, speakers and trainers to build their businesses via his popular ebook: “10 Super Coaches Share Their Secrets” and his audio ebook: “Getting Your First 50 Clients”.

“David Wood is a personal and business coach, and an original founder of the International Coach Academy – a global coach training school”

Source

Robert Recommends...

• The Added Advantage: Body Language


• To Dream of a Better World


• Master Your Finances


• “The Secret” of Personal Change


• Change The World By Changing Yourself


• Create a Vision Board for Your Goals

The Added Advantage: Body Language

by: Kathy Gates, Professional Life Coach

Have you ever walked by someone’s office (or even in the grocery store) and noticed them just standing there smiling? They are practicing the ‘added advantage’ of body language to not only project a better image in the world, but to feel better and relieve stress for themselves.

Body language 101 is ‘sit up, look the other person in the eye, and smile’. We all learned it as children, and fine tune it to meet prospective employers, or prospective spouses and friends.

But let’s look at the added advantage of using these body language basics to help you feel happier and less stressed throughout your week:

(1) Sit up: The best way to exercise control over your present body language is to get up and walk around a bit. This is actually a bit of a cheat, because what getting up and moving around does is make you take a deeper breath. During stress, we have a habit of beginning to take shallow breaths, and that deprives our bodies of the oxygen it needs, and makes the brain muscles constrict and work harder.

When you consciously sit up – or better– stand up, moving your body around helps the blood to flow again. It gives your legs and backside a rest, as well as decompresses your lungs to help give the oxygen to your brain and body. It will return the color to your face, and help ease the strain on your shoulders.

(2) Look the person in the eye: Normally, you will find that you’re overwhelmed and stressed because you’re either spending too much mind-time in the past (“I haven’t done that yet”), or too much time in the future (“I’ll never get this finished on time”). And all that’s good for is a slumping posture and a scowl on your face.

Instead, use this advantage of body language to pull yourself back to the present moment. When yo

u feel yourself getting uptight and miserable, just for a minute, wiggle your toes, look at the color of your shoes, take a whiff of the air (coffee?), listen to the sounds around you. It’s looking yourself in the eye. Getting present with yourself. When you get yourself back to the present, then you can consciously and purposefully “choose your attitude”.

(3) Smile: Help along your body language by thinking of something that makes you smile. Remember the 70’s pop-psychology idea of going to your “happy place”? Have that happy place in reserve, or think about a funny thing you or a friend did, or even a funny scene from a movie. Smile in your mind, or if appropriate, on the outside as well.

Body language has always been used to send a signal to other people, but now you can use your body language to send a signal to your own brain, and take advantage of feeling better any time of the day.

Source

Related articles

• How Body Language Can Make or Break Your Interview


• Body Language At Work


• What you don’t know about body language — but should


• The Language of Body Language


• Body language I


• 7 Surprising Truths about Body Language


• The Secret to Mastering Your Body Language


• Inferring, Body Language, and Shakespeare

Robert Recommends...

• The Importance Of Touch


• What Does Your Body Language Say?


• Friends And Influence


• A Body Language Primer


• The Language of the Soul


• Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP)